A known control device for a hybrid vehicle is disclosed in JP2010-184613A (hereinafter referred to as Patent reference 1). Patent reference 1 discloses a hybrid vehicle which includes an internal combustion engine and an electric motor serving as a motor, a dual clutch transmission in which a second input shaft is engaged with a rotor of the electric motor, and an electronic control unit for the hybrid vehicle for controlling the internal combustion engine, the electric motor, and the dual clutch transmission cooperatively. According to the construction of the hybrid vehicle. In a case where a requested drive force requested by a driver cannot be achieved by a motor drive force during a vehicle drives in an electric motor drive mode, it is necessary to change modes from the electric motor drive mode to an engine drive mode or to a hybrid vehicle (HV) drive mode in which the internal combustion engine is applied as the motor. Namely, in a case where the requested drive force exceeds a maximum motor drive force, it is necessary to start operating the internal combustion engine to change the modes to the drive modes (to the engine drive mode or to the hybrid vehicle (HV) drive mode) in which the internal combustion engine is applied as the motor.
According to the control device for the hybrid vehicle disclosed in Patent reference 1, a control which, allows to start the vehicle or to accelerate the vehicle with high responsiveness in response to an operation of an accelerator by a driver when the drive mode is changed from the motor drive mode to the HV drive mode, for example, when starting the vehicle suddenly from a stopped state, and when accelerating the vehicle during coasting, or freewheeling, is requested.
A need thus exists for a control device for a hybrid vehicle which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.